Telecommunication networks have developed from connection-oriented, circuit-switched (CO-CS) systems, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN), utilizing constant bit-rate, predefined point-to-point connections to connectionless, packet-switched (CNLS) systems, such as the Internet, utilizing dynamically configured routes characterized by one or more communication channels divided into arbitrary numbers of variable bit-rate channels. With the increase in demand for broadband communications and services, telecommunication service providers are beginning to integrate long-distance, large-capacity optical communication networks with these traditional CO-CS and CNLS systems. To ensure high reliability, fault detection techniques are employed. Such techniques can be difficult to deploy in these optical systems, in part, because of the complex interplay of protocols across a mixture of interfaces and networks (which utilize various protocols). Typically, these optical communication networks utilize multiplexing transport techniques, such as time-division multiplexing (TDM), wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM), and the like, for transmitting information over optical fibers.
Therefore, there is a need for an approach that provides for effective and efficient fault detection and notification across multiple networks.